Riley pushed her belly up off the rail, and she slid back into her seat. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “I didn’t kill them,” she said.

“You delivered the bomb.”

She shook her head. “It was you, Dig. I was just a tool you used. You killed them.”

The corner of his mouth turned up again. She wanted to smash her fist into that mouth. But more than that. She had to stop him.

“You’re not some kind of better breed of human being. Far from it. And lost as my father was, he was never like you. He hurt over the things he’d done. Not you. You’re a malignancy. A bad seed. Something went wrong inside you, and you can’t even recognize that you’re a freak.”

“Shut up, you stupid cunt.”

It was her turn to laugh. “Now you sound like Spyder. You’re no different than him. I bet he never knew his father, either.”

He hit her again. She’d known he would, but she was willing to take a beating to buy even a few seconds more time. She wiped the blood from her mouth.

“Just keep your mouth shut and drive the boat,” he shouted.

She jammed the throttles forward. The boat leapt onto a plane and began bouncing from wave top to wave top. Get ready, Cole. It’s time to stop this lunatic.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE

Off Îles de la Petite Terre 

March 31, 2008

7:50 a.m.

Cole treaded water as Theo swung the crane around and out over the water, then lowered the ROV Enigma over the side. The underwater vehicle’s three-foot square boxy frame and buoyancy tanks were made of PVC pipe painted bright yellow. Enigma was propelled and steered by a series of four blue bilge pumps that turned small red propellors. The forward-facing lights at the two top corners looked more like bug-eyes than headlamps. The thing looked like a giant toy made out of Legos.

Neither man knew whether Theo’s design would survive at the depths they would now attempt, but he had built her for just this kind of work.  All the wires for the lights, video camera, manipulator arm and propulsion system were bundled together in a thick, snake-like tether that was one hundred and fifty feet in length. That had better be long enough, Cole thought as he caught the lower end of the ROV’s frame, and steered it away from Shadow Chaser’s steel hull. He opened the snap shackle that connected Enigma to the crane.

“Clear!” he shouted and the crane’s electric motor whirred as the line retracted and the arm swung back aboard.

Once he had secured the crane, Theo appeared at the rail with the joystick box that controlled Enigma. “Ready to test?” he said.

“Roger that.”

The four little propellers began to spin all at once, and the ROV surged forward through the water. Cole had to pump his fins to keep up. “Forward thrust, check,” he called out. The headlamps flashed. “Lights, check.” A metal arm rose from the water and the pincer claw snapped shut. “Nutcracker, check.”

Theo said, “Swim around front and smile for the camera.”

Cole lowered his face mask, put the scuba regulator in his mouth and swam around to the front of the vehicle. He released some air from his buoyancy compensator so he could float a few feet below the surface in front of the video camera mounted on the Enigma’s frame. He waved, then kicked for the surface.

“Very photogenic, Dr. Thatcher.” Theo was holding up his tablet PC to show the video feed when Cole surfaced.

Cole pulled the regulator out of his mouth. “Just like Lloyd Bridges. I get to star in my own episode of Sea Hunt.” He removed his face mask, spit in it and washed the saliva around to prevent the glass from fogging. “Listen, Theo, if Priest shows up while I’m below, blink Enigma’s lights twice. I’ll know he’s there and waiting for me. If you think you or Riley are in immediate danger, flash three times, and I’ll know to get to the surface as fast as I can.”

“What about decompressing?”

“Let me worry about that.” Cole situated his mask back on his face. “And let me know what’s going on topsides. You watch my hands on the video screen. I’ll use sign language to communicate.” During their trials of the Enigma back in North Carolina, they had both learned to sign the alphabet along with a few basic words.

“According to my computer, it’s 9:47,” Theo said. “Remember, you’ve got the steel mesh cargo net and the air bag if you want to send anything topsides.”

Cole checked his gauges, readjusted his backpack for comfort and took hold of his regulator.

“And Cap, remember, you’ve got no back-up. You be careful down there.”

Cole attempted a grin for his friend. “Roger that. See ya in a few.” He gave Theo a thumbs up, and popped the regulator into his mouth.

As he descended, Cole kept checking back over his shoulder to make sure the Enigma was right behind him. The little ROV was pretty fast once Theo got the ballast tanks flooded right, so she descended at the correct angle. Then her forward thrust drove her downward much faster than a slow sink. Cole shivered as he swam into a new thermal patch where the water was a good ten degrees cooler than the surface. He listened to his breathing — inhale hiss, exhale bubble. In the background, he both heard and felt his own heart pounding. He concentrated on calming his breathing in order to preserve his air. He’d made hundreds of dives in his life, but he hadn’t felt nervous like this since he was a kid.

After the night of strong winds and rain, the visibility was not great. At forty-five feet down now, he could begin to make out the dark blue shadow on the sea floor. The sunlight was starting to dim and the Enigma’s head lamps made him feel as though he was swimming in a bright bubble of color while the sea around him turned a dusky shade of blue. The occasional fish darted off in surprise as he swam into its territory, but the most abundant life was evident in the thousands of tiny brine shrimp and microscopic creatures that made the sea water look like a thick biological soup.

Cole reached for his own light that hung by a tether from his backpack. He switched it on as he continued to pump his fins and pop his ears. At first, the concentrated beam reflected back off the matter floating in the water, but then he saw far off in the column of light, a distinct dark shape. It was the rudder, sticking up into the water in such a way that he had a hard time believing what he was looking at. Then he saw the hull stretching out and down ahead of the rudder. He squinted. Surcouf was resting on her starboard side, the whole wreck pointing downward into the trench.

A long and thin line, not quite horizontal, caught his attention forward. As he swam deeper, it began to look like a crooked, arthritic finger pointing toward the surface. When he made out the larger shape attached to it, Cole recognized it as one of the pair of thirty-seven millimeter canons Surcouf carried aft of the conning tower and atop the seaplane hangar — the long barrel now covered with marine growth.

My God, she’s enormous. He could not see where the dark hull ended in the gloom in either direction.  As he swam closer, he saw the film of coral and barnacle growth on the lifelines surrounding the hangar deck, but there was less growth than he had imagined. It had to be the depth. Even in these clear Caribbean waters, one didn’t find the lush coral down here where so little sunlight penetrated. It was amazing how intact she was. He reached out and grabbed the lifeline and a small cloud of matter mushroomed around his gloved hand.

Cole looked over his shoulder at the bright headlamps of the ROV. He couldn’t see the video camera, but he knew it was there and Theo was watching him. He gave another thumbs up. He’d made it. He was touching Surcouf — the first human to do so in sixty-seven years. Just ahead of him was the round shape of the opening for the seaplane hanger. On top of it was the deck with the pair of deck canons and above that, the conning tower. All of it was tilted at such an extreme angle nose downward, it looked as though she were ready to slide down into the trench at any moment.